Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth is an upcoming and massively anticipated turn based, (explore, expand, exploit and exterminate) civilization / empire building strategy that is currently in development under 2K Subsidiary and Firaxis Games.

The game, which is set to release during the third quarter of 2014 is set to be published by 2K games on all three primary home computer systems; Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux. Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth is a spiritual successor to Aplha Centauri, but is not a direct sequel.

Development

When first announced that the developers would be revealing their newest game at PAX East (which was held in Boston on April 12th of 2014) many fans and industry insiders predicted that they would be unveiling Civilization VI. What attendees and media representatives received was instead the announcement of Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth, the next and most ambitious Civilization title yet, taking place in the far reaches of space. The reveal was accompanied by an impressive CG reveal trailer.

Since the reveal the game has constantly been likened to Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, another title developed by Firaxis Games set in space. However, with publishing rights for the Alpha Centauri IP (as well as its expansion, Sid Meier’s Alien Crossfire) belonging to EA (Electronic Arts) the lead designer of Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth claimed that Beyond Earth is fan service for Alpha Centauri fans.

The developers are said to be gathering information from the source material that inspired Alpha Centauri, ranging from the Wikipedia page to historical texts, this goes alongside the inspiration from modern day sciences and popular media such as Cosmos, the information science television show. Lead Designer Will Miller has stated that they wanted to draw a clear line from and modern science and that they were inspired from SpaceX and the new Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Gameplay

Following in the wake of the hugely successful and multiple award winning titles that have come before it, Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth will be keeping the traditional gameplay mechanics of previous instalments with a number of new features to keep it fresh. Co-lead designer David McDonough has commented on the similarities between the previous Civilization game and Beyond Earth. The cities, city-base progression, leaders, building improvements, and technologies will feel familiar to the fans of the series.

The game will keep the hexagonal grid based movement and building mechanics at it’s core as the central gameplay pillar. There is a number of changes that will be made to the initial beginning choices that players make that will impact how they play the game. In previous iterations of the game the player would choose an important historical figure to lead their civilization, this leader would convey certain abilities and attributes to the populace and give some passive boosts to certain statistics. In Beyond Earth the player will choose the name of the organization who is funding their expedition into the void, what kind of shuttle was used to help them reach their destination and even who was on board for the journey to the new world.

This level of player choice is expected to bring a new level of player customisation to their civilization allowing for vastly different playstyles. This reaches into the “affinities” which are the individual player philosophies that will ultimately influence the manner in which players will advance in terms of technological advancement and allows the unlocking of unique unit choices. The traditional tech tree has been reworked to emphasise player choice and decisiveness. It now branches of in a number of different directions, this forces the player to choose a path and stick to it. When this is coupled with the fact that player can’t trade tech, it makes what was once a simple decision, a fundamentally game changing choice.

Affinity will in turn work with these choices. Below is a brief over view of what is known about the affinity options.

Harmony – Harmonious players will try and co-exist with the planet and it’s native inhabitants. These players can domesticate the native creatures and species of the planet, they can also make use of genetic modification.

Supremacy – Supremacists put their faith in the advances of technology and make use of highly specialised in game units that assist each other when out in the field.

Purity – Purists are amongst the most isolationist of those who embarked on the journey to a new world, they will hide themselves behind large powerful defensive structures and attempt to make their new home.

Story

Set to take place around 200-300 years from the present day, humanity must branch of into space in order to find another home planet. Nothing else is known about the story.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.